The Henry Search: The Movie

A recent blog reported that Henry resident Dale Marliere had videotaped the latest Henry City Council meeting and posted it on YouTube, and that he stated plans to start doing the same at future meetings.

Since then, Marliere has branched out by posting a year-old video on a different subject: a contentiously disputed police search of his property.

It’s no secret that Marliere has sometimes clashed with city officials on various issues, and one example was a running conflict early last year with then-Henry Police Chief Bill Calbow about conditions at Marliere’s home at 911 Richards St.

On March 6, 2013, that came to a head when Calbow and Sgt. John Williamson did a warrantless search of the yard enclosed in a wood privacy fence for possible violations of the city’s nuisance ordinance. Marliere is a longtime demolition derby participant, and the probe focused on auto parts in the backyard.

It played out as a case of dueling video cameras, with police attempting to document a violation while Marliere made his own record to support allegations that the search was illegal because police had no warrant to enter the property.

“We didn’t need a warrant,” Calbow told the Journal Star later. He maintained that a city ordinance authorized police to enter the property for that purpose, and he had sent Marliere a letter to that effect.

Some photos of the yard were posted on an earlier blog, when Marliere invited the Journal Star in to take pictures. That was after the contested search.

The search apparently produced no usable evidence against Marliere. At least, no charges or citations were ever issued on the basis of anything found there.

But it did take on a life of its own as a contentious issue in the April 2013 mayoral campaign, in which upstart Democrat Randy Constantine was challenging incumbent Republican David Donini, who had appointed Calbow. Constantine, a retired child welfare investigator who had also worked as a police officer, supported Marliere’s claims that the search was improper.

Did that have an impact on the election? Who knows? What is known is that Constantine won, immediately vowed not to reappoint Calbow, and the former chief eventually resigned after a couple of lengthy public statements against Constantine.

In the meantime, of course, Constantine himself has resigned and left town, declaring that he did not get any respect from the City Council. Williamson is still on the job, though now under the command of a new chief.

And Marliere is still on the job as well, in his role of calling attention to city actions that might not otherwise be noticed. In one unrelated incident, he showed up at a city council committee meeting called to discuss a new zoning complaint about which he had never been previously notified until contacted by the Journal Star.

That complaint came to nothing, except that Marliere said he later gladly obtained a building permit that he hadn’t realized he needed for an improvement involving dormer windows, he said.

“I’ve got a permit for everything I’ve done to this house,” he said. “I didn’t know I needed one for that.”

And now he has posted the nearly 30-minute video of the police search of his property. It had been on CD, and he just recently got assistance from a friend in figuring out how to post it online on a channel called Henry Youth Advisory Committee.

Meanwhile, a report on Marliere’s videotaping of the council caught the attention of Alderman Frank Holocker in nearby Lacon. He posted a Facebook comment suggesting that his city might want to consider taping and posting its own meetings.

“Since one of the main purposes for the council is to represent the public and there normally is a small percentage of people able to come to the meetings, would it be wise for the Lacon City Council to video tape their own meetings and post it so everyone would be able to view and make comments on?” Holocker asked

“Would this help the people understand what is really happening at the meeting and to also get more involved in the city government?”

Marliere knew nothing about the Lacon interest until told by a reporter, but he said those are the kinds of questions that he would like to inspire.

Author: Gary L. Smith

Gary L. Smith is a free-lance writer who has contributed regularly to the Journal Star since 1993. He reports primarily on events in Marshall, Putnam, and Stark Counties, and the name of this blog is derived from the way that judges in the Peoria-based 10th Judicial District refer to that area.
View all posts by Gary L. Smith

4 thoughts on “The Henry Search: The Movie”

I’d like to see Lacon meetings videotaped and put online for the public to view. Not all of us are able to attend the meetings. There is no reason this isn’t done in this day and age.
Unlike Mr. Marliere, I’d like to see discussion on there on cleaning up the city of Lacon. I think public eyesores should be forced to abate the nuisances on their properties. I think homeowners should meet a standard and not bring down the property values of neighboring properties.
I also think the public would get a better idea of who says what on the Council and show their effectiveness in representing the residents of Lacon. That would put an end to those rumors of he said – she said.

I just skimmed through Mr. Marliere’s video of the search of his property. I am disappointed to think that a Mayoral candidate would involve himself in this. It was evident the police were doing nothing more then their job. I recall for a while their was a question of the legality of filming police in the performance of their duties. I’m not sure if it fell in that time frame or not. If it did, Mr. Marliere should consider himself lucky he didn’t leave in the back of the squad car. The neighbor at the end summed it up nicely. “They are doing their job”.
When will Lacon?

I was waiting for the attacks on here. Nice name choice Mr. Hunt or whoever you are. I don’t go to meetings because I work second shift. I don’t remember your name in the funny pages commenting either. Don’t matter if we comment here, the paper or in person we still got the right to say what we think abt. govt. I guess you are a city board member hiding behind your Hunt.
Why don’t the board listen to Frank when he brings this stuff up? Do we have to put up with crap from the trash in his town when we complain? They can see what that garage does to the looks of our town. You can’t miss it.
This town has lots of areas to clean up. If we don’t before you know it we’ll look like Sparland. I’m sick of hearing that Lacon “used to be” such a nice town. No one to blame but stupid board members with no cajoles.